It's not a business plan, it's a battle plan. Think of a general around a sand table and they're formulating their strategy to Victory Here's the archers. Here's the artillery. We're going to sneak attack from this direction.

over here. they're envisioning the strategy that wins the victory. That's a battle plan and that's what we're building today. The trouble with most business plans is that they're Overkill 15 plus pages of Forgotten aims and intentions.

When was the last time you looked at your 2022 business plan? I'm guessing it might have been a minute. So I wonder would you be up into a simpler approach? Something you could commit to memory and by extension, action? If so, you're in the right place. Welcome to this week in marketing! My name is Jason Pantana, your host and I'm so glad you're with us today to talk about battle planning. If you're new to the channel, it would mean the world to us if you could hit that big red subscribe button and then make sure to hit the Bell right next to it so you turn on notifications to get alerted whenever we publish new videos just like this one here.

and so without further delay, let's talk about your 2023 marketing battle plan. now. a battle plan which is technically a marketing plan for the purposes of this video here today is designed to be super straightforward I Want it to be so easy it can be committed to memory because if I can get it in your brain, it will show up in your actions every day as you bring that plan to life. And so it has three major parts: Goals, sources, and channels.

And that's it. We'll talk about each one: Goals, Sources, and Channels beginning first with Goals Stephen Covey Said. You have to begin with the end in mind. and when you think about that through the lens of business planning or marketing planning, it rings true.

You've got to know what you're aspiring toward. Otherwise, what's the point of any of it? You've seen plans I'm sure that consist of activities that are, let's all be honest, fruitless. Where it's like we're gonna do some of this and we'll do a little bit of that over there. And how about we'll do some of this and I Feel like we should do this and you really step back for a moment and question, but why, where is this going and what is Is it building? What is it taking folks to And you have to begin with the end in mind.

What's the goal? What's the thing you want? Now, my encouragement in the context of this plan right here, is that your goal is something numeric. It should be a number, so that as you start carrying out your plan step by step, you see yourself drawing ever closer to the achievement of that goal. So for example, how many units do you want to sell next year? Or how much revenue do you want to create next year? Or it could be how many leads do you want to generate next year? I Recognize there are lots of business plans that have goals around. What's your mission? what's your why, and those types of questions.

And I'm a massive fan of those types of questions I Think they're fundamentally important. However, today's plan in this video I'm trying to keep it really, really simple I wanted to be something that you can commit to memory so that you can carry it out every single day. Goals Sources, Channels: It's just part of the DNA of your business in 2023, so that you can see yourself every day that you execute your plan, you're drawing bit by bit closer to recognize Rising that goal. If it's a hundred sales for instance, I Want to see you get one, two, three four, and start counting your way to 100 so you can basically taste it.

We start with the goal and then we work backwards to craft what is the plan that leads us to the Fulfillment of that goal. Next, let's talk about the difference between sources and channels. Sources are the audiences that actually give you business. So for example, if you say my goal is a hundred sales in 2023, the next logical question is what sources of business will tally up to a hundred deals.

And you might say, well, I've got my past client. center of influence. Source Of Business: They produce repeat business referral business. They are a source of business and they'll account for a portion of my total sales.

Or you might say my Geographic Farm is another source of business and then I would ask you. Okay, well how is it that the geographic Farm is going to actually give you deals? We're like well I gotta I gotta work the geographic Farm Okay, so you need to put in place channels to communicate with the geographic Farm To earn that business, you got to Market yourself right? You gotta make the calls Prospect market and do all the things it takes to work to source of business. So channels are how you work. the source.

The source of business is what tallies up to the goal. It's kind of a logical framework, right? What's my goal? What are the sources that get me to that goal? What are the channels I'll put in place with each respective source to work that source of business to actually get opportunities out of it. Simple Now, let's run through a list of different types of sources just to get the juices flowing. In terms of some ideas of what sources could be a part of your plan.

By no means do you have to do all of these. This is here to give you some ideas. So for example, you might include and probably should include your past client and center of influence database as a source of repeat business and referral business. It's probably the best source of your business.

I've talked about it on this show numerous times before. If you look at the data from the National Association of Realtors buy a landslide, the number one source of sellers and buyers finding their agent is drumroll the database. It's repeat business. It's referral business.

And so I would say that you should probably most likely seriously think about including your database of past clients and sphere of influence contacts as a major pillar a major source of business in 2023. Also in the vein of referrals, you might think about your agent agent Network which could be through your brand or your company. or it could be through this ecosystem. or it could be through social media.

But agent agent referrals are a Big Slice of the pie in terms of generating opportunities and Deals and so maybe it becomes a part of your plan in 2023. And by extension, you might also think about industry Partners like title and escrow officers like loan officers and other people who are in The Home Services space that might be a source of business for you in 2023. Free, You might think about establishing a geographic Farm whereby you say hey, this is my turf I'm going to put a dome over top of this area and I'm going to mark it to and I'm going to build relationships and go deep in this space I'm going to start a geographic Farm which I think is a smart idea because candidly going after listings and having lead sources that produce listings. That's a smart move if you ask me.

another source of business and this is kind of a no-brainer source of business that we've talked about on this show recently is Open Houses Open Houses. You can promote them to establish your brand. Folks come in and they sign in and they're basically raising their hands saying I am shopping for a house or I'm a neighbor and I'm kind of snooping to see what the competition might look like if I decide to sell. Open houses are a phenomenal source of leads, buyers and sellers alike.

And so I would say that maybe open houses could be a part of your game plan. Or you might say like I'm going to invest in leads through portals like Zillow or Realtor.com and that one might be budget prohibitive. or maybe you're running a team and you say I'm going to start getting giving leads to my team members and so maybe it's an investment in those types of lead sources. Or it could be like social inbound.

So for example, you start making videos and content on social media YouTube Facebook Instagram Tech talk all over the place and you say I'm gonna make content specifically with the intention of attracting business, helping people locally discover me through my content. So I can generate opportunities that way and you can do the same not just through social, but also through search. Maybe it's an SEO play? It could be a local SEO play like your Google business profile where you're like I'm gonna get reviews and I'm going to attract people who are searching for the best realtor in my local Marketplace I Want to rank my Google business profile or I'm going to blog like crazy and I want to rank my actual website if they're looking for neighborhoods or things to do around town. I want to be like the source of information on my website and so that's an SEO strategy.

Maybe that's how you want to generate business. Maybe that's a source and your plan for 2023? Or it could be something simple like refer neurocytes agent Pronto up Nest dwell full Fast expert All those sites whereby folks are Googling essentially who's the best realtor in a certain area because they want a third party endorsement. These sites like Up Nest, and Dweltful, and so forth. They run ads on Google to intercept that traffic to their website and they show reviews and rankings and all kinds of stuff like that.

Well, maybe part of your strategy is to invest in those platforms knowing that yes, you're going to pay a referral fee. However, the lifetime value of a customer is worth way in excess of one deal. So if it's a referral fee to get in the door with that customer, so be it. So maybe all you got to do is run a Google search.

Who's the best realtor in your local? Marketplace See who's running ads on those keywords? It might be agent Pronto it might be my agent finder. It might be any number of them and then those are the ones that you want to focus on dialing in your profile so that you stand a better chance of generating the hand raisers. The leads who are looking for that best agent in the local Marketplace Maybe they were referral sites are a source for you, or it could be for sale by owners or expired listings or absentee owners. Where you're like I want in-market Sellers and I want to go after them in a prospecting Manner and that's going to be a source of business for me.

Or it could be renters For instance, where you're like, you know what? I Want to help these folks take the next steps in a way that I add value? take the next steps into Home Ownership Maybe that's a target audience for you. Maybe that's a source of business in your 2023 plan. Or maybe a source for you is digital ads. For example, PPC campaigns on Google for buyers or for sellers.

You might run ads on home valuations and so somebody's trying to find out what's my home worth. And then they click an ad on Facebook on Google on some kind of a pay-per-click platform that goes to a landing page for them to get a free home valuation and then the follow-up is where all the money gets made right? We know that, but maybe home valuation, types of digital campaigns, or maybe a home search types of digital campaigns or how you generate leads Folks are searching for a home in your area. You have ads that populate on Google or Facebook or other digital platforms that then direct people to your website where they can create saved searches and they can look for properties and they become a lead for you. My question to you is, what are the sources of business? We're going to get the leads from, what are the sources that when put together, they tally up to the achievement of your goal.

Now I Know when you start like really looking under the hood? This doesn't sound as simple as it did before. Goals, Sources Channels sounds pretty easy, but when you really start looking at, well, what are the sources and then next, what are the channels to work Those sources? That's when you realize that the greatness of any plan is in its details. And so finally, let's talk about channels. The Crown Gym, the last little nugget, whatever of your battle plan.

Channels are the communication mediums that we use to be in touch with to work a given source. So the goal is the goal. The sources are where they get the deals from, where the opportunities that achieve that goal come from. But the channels are the means by which we talk to.

we communicate with. We build relationships with the sources of business. When you think about channels, there's really two types of channels. There's one to one channels and there's one to many channels.

One to one is for example: I'm gonna call I'm gonna text I'm gonna email you one to one. It's me to you directly. One to many is more of a marketing play. I'm gonna send a mass email to my entire list.

I'm gonna post on social media for anybody to discover my content. So think through the different sources. what are my one to one am I One to many types of channels that are gonna be the most effective in working that source. And here's the deal.

You should be creating a list of channels for every. Source That's a part of your plan. Every source needs a plan to be worked. Otherwise, it's an untouched Source It's an untapped source of business.

If you don't work it, it ain't gonna work. So for example, calls and voicemails, text messages, multimedia messages inside of like Instagram Direct or even chat Bots For instance, inside of Instagram Direct or Facebook knocks, drops, pickups, and pop buys. These are all examples of one-to-one types of communication channels. Think about your sources and ask yourself okay, what's going to be the most effective driver of working this source? Is it a one-to-one communication format or a one to many or a combination thereof.

But it's ultimately you as the general formulating your strategy for How Will I produce results out of this source of business. And then think about your marketing channels. your one to many channels, mass emails, social media, paid ads on Google Facebook YouTube Instagram You name it. Maybe through events, you conduct your marketing through parties, through educational, buyer and seller seminars and opportunities like that.

Maybe you Market yourself through sponsorships, you sponsor the local sports team. You might sponsor the local school or a festival or things like that because you decide that having your brand and being known in the community is part of how you work a given source of business. Think about a geographic farm. For instance, if I have a geographic farm and that's my lead Source then maybe sponsoring the local school in that area is actually a really smart play for positioning my agent brand to be dominant in that area.

It could be through Billboards Or it could be through signage or bus benches or postcards or direct mail or letters or different mechanisms that you promote your brand. Again, it's one to one. It's one to many. It's just channels.

This is just the logic of building a plan. You set a goal. You determine the sources of business that get you to that goal, and then the channels that are actually the tactics that will work the sources to produce the results. It's just an equation, it's just a battle plan local Publications National Publications TV Radio Hulu Ads, you name it.

there is no limit of marketing channels. In fact you can spread yourself Way Too Thin So my advice to you is kind of make yourself a word Bank of all the channels you can think of I just named a bunch all the channels you can think of and then just do like a word match this one works for this source and that Source but not that source and then outline a plan that makes sense for you that you can actually achieve and I would warn you. Don't be so grandiose where it's like like you need an army to execute your plan but you don't have one. A good General knows this is my Army This is my terrain.

This is my opportunity and here's the result: I want And here is the plan that gets me there. That's your battle plan. This video is not a plan. This video is a framework for a plan.

You're the general. It's your sand table. It's your Battlefield in 2023. So what are your goals? What are your sources and what are your channels? I'd Love to hear what's going to be a part of your plan in 2023 to dominate it in your local.

Marketplace So until next week. This is this week in Marketing Foreign.